I'm down in San Diego for the second week of Feldenkrais training and, as usual, have a couple of new fitness thoughts.

Yesterday we were being put through our (extremely gentle) paces and about halfway through the day I felt like the volume had been turned way up on the sensory information getting through from my body to my brain (Feldenkrais work has that effect).  My feet felt were feeling the floor better, my core muscles were responding more subtly to weight shifts and to movement in general.  Movement as a whole felt easier and more natural. 

The term "awareness" sets off alarm bells in plenty of hardcore fitness folks--perhaps with good reason.  It's very subjective and intangible, so, like, what does it mean to be aware?  It always sounds like quasi-spiritualism:  what are w aware of, exactly?  The spirits in the rocks and the trees?  The gnomes that live in the clouds?  Isn't time better spent getting stronger, faster, more agile and flexible?  You know, pursuing measurable goals?

What I'm finding is that becoming more 'aware' translates very quickly--like, immediately--into measurable progress.  The results aren't always predictable, because everybody responds differently to this kind of work, but performance of virtually all kinds seems to take a noticeable leap forward, largely, it seems, because movement becomes more organized and streamlined. 

This morning I was performing repeats of uphill sprints and I was unusually sensitive to deviations in my form; rather than doing more and working harder as I ran, I started doing less, working smarter, and became measurably faster as a result.  Any self-help schmo will tell you that the first step to changing a habit is identifying the problem, and this seems to work on a physical level as well:  if you know you tend to land hard on your heels as you sprint, you can start to take steps to change it.  If you don't know that's your habit, there's no way to change it.  My final sprint was my fastest, as my body figured out how to perform the run more and more efficiently. 

(A guy who's way faster, stronger, buffer than me.)